Federal agents arrested an Oklahoma man early on Saturday morning after he attempted to detonate a van that he believed contained 1,000 pounds of explosives next to a bank in Oklahoma City.
Jerry Drake Varnell parked a van in an alley next to BancFirst, drove to a safe distance with an undercover federal agent, and dialed a phone number that he believed would set off the explosives, according to a criminal complaint filed on Sunday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma’s western district.
Federal agents who have been monitoring Varnell, 23, for months arrested him at 1 a.m. He was charged with “malicious attempt to destroy a building by an explosive.” If convicted, he would face a maximum of 20 years in prison, with a mandatory five year sentence, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Varnell appeared on the radar of federal anti-terrorism authorities after an acquaintance reported his intention to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington D.C. with a bomb similar to the one used in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.
